Tanks and vehicles of the
Lothians & Border Yeomanry
Including the 1st Lothians and Border Yeomanry
2nd Lothians and Border Horse,
1st Lothians and Border Horse Yeomanry
Right: A Vickers Mk VI Light Reconnaissance tank of the type used by the 1st Lothians and Border Yeomanry whilst they were the 51st Division’s Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment during the Battle of France, 1940 .
Armed with a heavy .50 inch Vickers machine gun and a coaxial light BESA 15mm Machine
gun, its 88 Hp 6-
It carried a crew of 3, commander, driver and gunner, protected against shrapnel and light weapons by barely effective 4 to 14 mm of armour.
Below: The 51st Division was well equipped and largely mechanised, making extensive use of tracked Vickers Carrier variants, such as the Scout Carrier shown below.
Tanks of the Lothians and Border Yeomanry / Lothians and Border Horse Yeomanry Over the years, I have built many 1/76th scale models of the tanks used by the L&BY, L&BHY and L&BH during WW2. More details can be found on my main modelling site, but the pictures below show the main types:
Vickers Mk VIB Tank
Sherman M4A2 Mk.III
Vickers Scout Carrier
Valentine III
Crusader III
Sherman M4A2 Mk.III
Sherman Crab Flail Tank
Below and below left: Fighting as part of the 6th Armoured Division, fighting in North Africa, the 2nd L&BHY were initially equipped with Vickers Valentine Mk.III Infantry Tanks of the type shown here. These were the most widely produced British tank of WW2, with over 8,000 manufactured in a continuous run up to 1944.
Right: Alongside the Valentine, the 2nd Lothians also operated the Crusader Mk.III Cruiser Tank in Tunisia.
The Valentines and Crusaders performed well, but after the initial battles in Tunisia,
the arrival of more reliable modern US-
Below -
Right: Back in the UK, the 1st had reformed as the Lothians and Border Horse Yeomanry,
attached to the 79th Armoured Division. This specialised unit, sometimes known as
“Hobart’s Funnnies”, after their Commanding Officer, operated a range of unusual
vehicles designed to breach the German’s Atlantic Wall Defences. As such, the Mine
Clearing Sherman “Crab” Flail Tanks of the 1st L&BHY were amongst the very first
troops ashore on D-
Right: A Sherman Crab of the 1st L&BHY disembarks under fire on the D-
www.gengriz.co.uk Updated June 2020
Right: Men of the 1st Lothians & Border Yeomanry undertake routine maintenance of their tanks in France.
© Crown Copyright IWM (F3519)
Below: A Vickers Universal Carrier similar to that used by the Lothians in France. An incredibly versatile vehicle that shared some components with the Mk IVB Tank.